Donald Trump just can’t quit Joe Biden.
The president dropped out of the 2024 race more than a month ago, yet his former Republican opponent keeps bringing him up, suggesting that Trump still can’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that he has a whole new presidential race on his hands against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“You know, if Biden didn’t do the Debate, he would be the Democrat Candidate for President right now,” Trump wrote Tuesday on his website Truth Social. “The fact is, Debate or no Debate, the Democrats really did a number on him!!!”
In another post last week, Trump questioned why “seething” Biden “gave up” and withdrew his candidacy. “He’s an angry man now, and he should be!” the former president added.
Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump and questions about the 81-year-old president’s age and acuity led many Democrats to call for him to pass the torch to a younger presidential standard bearer. He did so last month while backing Harris, 59, ending weeks of ugly infighting in his party.
During his speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, Biden denied reports that he harbors lingering frustrations with people who pressed him to drop out of the race.
“I love the job, but I love my country more,” Biden said. “All this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down. That’s not true.”
Still, people in Biden’s inner circle aren’t pleased with the way he was publicly pushed out, pointing fingers at some Democratic power brokers, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to NBC News.
Trump’s frustrations about the upended nature of the race centre on no longer being able to run, at age 78, against an older incumbent president who wasn’t particularly popular. Harris has surged in the polls and received a ton of media coverage following Biden’s exit, leaving Trump grasping for ways to seize back the spotlight, including by holding news conferences, sitting for an interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, rejoining X (formerly Twitter) and ranting online.
Trump has also struggled to focus on Harris, alternating between various nicknames for her and lines of attack. Last week, at a rally in North Carolina, he mocked his advisers for telling him to focus on policy differences with Democrats instead of slinging personal insults.
“‘Please, sir, don’t get personal. Talk about policy,’” Trump said, paraphrasing his staffers, before asking the crowd: “Here are the two questions: Should I get personal? Should I not get personal?”
When his supporters cheered louder for personal attacks, Trump joked: “My advisers are fired.”
It appears that Trump and Harris will face off for the first time on a debate stage next month in Philadelphia. After some squabbling between the two campaigns about the rules and format, the former president announced on Tuesday he had agreed to debate the vice president on September 10 with ABC News moderating.
“The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said on Truth Social.